Jack Hardaway
]
Summertime.
We watch the clouds for those sudden thunder storms and down pours that just appear out of nowhere and then are suddenly gone.
The weather reports become unreliable so the sky holds our attention, watching for those thick dark clouds, the towering walls and columns of approaching weather.
I love those summer storms.
I watch for them, especially when things start to dry up.
I love the weather, interpreting the sound, the feel, the taste in the air, the appearance, the shifting in the wind.
We are told to watch for the weather of God, to interpret the present time.
Jesus is speaking to his disciples and to the crowd telling them that they need to respond to the arrival of God’s presence in the world in his own person, in his words, his actions, and in his body. How they respond, or don’t respond to Jesus will cause divisions.
Jesus is the weather of God, the storm front rolling in.
Luke’s Gospel passes that encounter forward to us to respond to as well. We are meant to ask ourselves, “How do I respond to Jesus’ arrival in the world? How do I respond to his presence in my life?”
Or, would we rather talk about the weather?
The letter to the Hebrews introduces us today to the language of the great cloud of witnesses, those who have gone before who responded to God’s presence in the world. It is a message of unrelenting hope, a towering storm front of hope.
The author of the letter to the Hebrews attends to the weather of God and finds an overwhelming abundance of examples of those who have responded to God’s presence in the world.
The weather of God, bringing rain to a dry world.
How do we respond to the always approaching weather front of God’s presence?
The thunderstorm of the Gospel?
How do I live differently?
Who have been the examples in my life?
We aren’t really offered answers.
We are offered examples, and hope, and questions.
How will I live with this hope?
The vast cloud of God’s presence rolling into our lives.